Away Team

The eight-song concert is the definitive early onstage statement of a great band whose personnel shape-shifted through the years. This particular lineup is looked upon as the primo Rainbow assemblage. Lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had left Deep Purple in 1975 to concentrate on a more personalized version of his vision, and did just that with legendary vocalist Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010), drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Jimmy Bain and keyboardist Tony Carey. (This lineup only recorded one album together: Rising, a landmark in British Rock.)

Performing flawlessly on elongated jam-happy versions of “Kill The King,” “Mistreated,” “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves,” “Catch The Rainbow” (disc #1), “Man On The Silver Mountain,” “Stargazer,” “Still I’m Sad” and “Do You Close Your Eyes” (disc #2), Blackmore fulfilled his every expectation. Filled with startling guitar solos and massive Dio lung power, Live In Germany 1976 is a band in full control of their capabilities.

Live In Germany 1976 has all the elements, showcasing a band truly immeasurable in their talent and musical abilities. One can only wonder what kind of magic could have been produced had this lineup stayed together.

To purchase RAINBOW Live In Germany 1976 click here.

DEEP PURPLE

Phoenix Rising

Eagle Vision

8 out of 10

A good band can withstand a change in guitarist or drummer, a great band can withstand several membership changes, a select few bands can withstand a lead singer change (ok, I can think of two, Genesis and Van Halen), but only one band can have several different lineups and change the personnel of the entire band over and over and over again and still be amazing, relevant, put out quality albums over and over, and most importantly be accepted as that very band with no backlash for the changes.

I’m of course talking about Deep Purple. The band has had so many lineup changes over the year, had so many people in and out of the band that they are actually known by their versions, Mark I, II, III, etc. The band has had 14 different members over the years, they’ve changed every position but one. Ian Paice has been the drummer from day one, and in every incarnation of the band he has been there.

He has kept time for the likes of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, David Coverdale, Glen Hughes, Jon Lord, Joe Satriani, Tommy Bolin, Joe Lynn Turner, Rod Evans, Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Don Airey, and Nick Simper. Some amazing talent has performed under the DEEP PURPLE moniker.

Fans to this day still debate the best and their best Marks (or versions) of the band. My personal will always be Mark I. The original. Not to take away anything from the Coverdale/Hughes days, but I was turned on to DP in 1984 when they reunited the DP Mark I and put out Perfect Strangers. It was from that point I went backwards and found one of my all time favorite bands.

The last maybe 10 years the band, or their labels have been putting out some great videos. They’ve taken all their old concert videos, unreleased concerts, and putting together some great packages for the fans.

The latest is Phoenix Rising. And it features Mark IV of DEEP PURPLE. With an unknown (at the time) David Coverdale sharing lead vocal duties with bassist Glenn Hughes, Tommy Bolin on guitar, Jon Lord on keys, and as always Ian Paice on drums, this short lived version never had the chance to record as Tommy Bolin died in 76 of a heroin overdose. But this never before seen concert Rises Over Japan recorded in 1975 at the Budokahn in Tokyo sees the band crank out the classics Burn, Love Child, Highway Star, Stormbringer, Smoke On The Water, Getting Tighter, and Lazy.

Two things jump out at you watching this (especially during Highway Star, and Burn), David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes played off each other insanely well vocally. It was a true stroke of great fortune that the band got both of them at the same time. Because it is also evident during Highway Star that what Ian Gillan did alone vocally required Hughes/Coverdale together to do. David Coverdale hitting the lower, gruffer, bluesier parts, and Hughes hitting the higher notes. What we don’t get to see, but I would love to have is to see Coverdale/Hughes do Child In Time. Again it would absolutely take the talents of both of them to pull off what Gillan did by himself, but it would still be amazing to see them do it together.

The concert is remastered in 5.1 on this Blu Ray disc. And it sounds, well, as great as you’d expect a DEEP PURPLE show to sound. Martin Birch did a great job catching the band tearing through a wild set. The band may not have been the tightest at the time, at least not that night from the looks of things, but the energy, playing, and vibe was there. And of course the great songs. Sadly it is only 30 minutes, but it is a great 30 minutes of a seldom seen version of DEEP PURPLE. And in that, this show is enough to purchase this disc. To see Bolin/Hughes/Coverdale rock out to these great DP songs is more than enough reason to pick up the blu ray. But Rises Over Japan is only 30 minutes of Phoenix Rising. The rest is a never before seen documentary Gettin’ Together. It is culled from years of research, with live shots, backstage footage, interviews, and never before told stories. It tells the best and the worst of the Purple. The highs and lows of a tumultuous time in DP history.

The blu ray will only set you back $20, but you can pick up a regular DVD version for only $15 and a great DVD/CD combo for $20 also. If you are a Deep Purple fan you simply cannot pass this up. If you are lover of 70s rock, this is right up your alley, and if you want to see where David Coverdale cut his teeth before Whitesnake then this is for you too.









DEEP PURPLE – Phoenix Rising is out today. You can pick your copy up here, you’ll thank me later.

STRYPER
The Covering
Big 3 Records
0 out of 10



Ok, who here had The Yellow And Black Attack? Raise yer hand! Right.
Who here had Soldiers Under Command? RAISE YER DAMNED HAND! Right, thought so.
Who here had To Hell With The Devil? Raise yer hand, yeah you, there, right there. Raise your hand, you know you had that cassette jamming in your Pinto on the way to high school in 85. Don’t lie to me.
Now, who has any album after that by Stryper? Me neither.

25 years later and the bumble bees are back buzzing around with a new album. Only this time it is covers of their influences, the songs and bands that made them want to be musicians. The list of bands they are covering on the album is great. You’ve got Ozzy, Sweet, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, UFO, Kansas, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin. Sounds like a pretty badass CD doesn’t it?

Well it’s pretty bad alright. Don’t believe me? Here is Away Team‘s very own Bam Bam’s two word review of The Covering right here.

Musically there are some decent points to the disc. I mean, as soon as the song starts you can name every song they are playing. So, there’s that. That should almost be worth a point on the 1 to 10 scale right? Ok, so we’ll give them 1 point for being able to recognize the songs they are playing.

And of course the song list is great. Lights Out, Immigrant Song, Breaking The Law, The Trooper, Over The Mountain, Heaven And Hell, Carry On, Highway Star, Set Me Free, Shout It Out Loud, Blackout, and On Fire. I mean, I truly don’t think I’ve seen a better cover album song list than this on one album. So there’s a point for that. Now we’re at 2 out of 10.

The dude on the cover of the album looks like Chris Jericho the wrestler to me, so if you’re into wrestling you might give them a point for that. Now it’s 3 out of 10.

Then Michael Sweet begins to sing. Not that the guy has a bad voice, I mean he’s no Joey Belladonna and that is a point IN his favor, so we’ll give them a point on this CD just because he CAN sing better than Joey Belladonna. Here’s to 4 out of 10. Damn, they’re almost batting .500!

Oh, wait, Michael is still singing. Wow. Ok, I am TRYING to be fair here. His vocals on Set Me Free aren’t THAT bad. I’ll say that. So, in starting off the album it is OK. Of course starting off an album at just OK is not a good place to start. You better go up real quick, because you don’t have far to fall into the ‘this stinks like 10 pounds of hot steaming dog shit’ pile of no return.

The opening riff to the Scorpion’s Blackout kicks in, and you’re like, ok… Let’s get this going. Hey, Michael Sweet doesn’t sound too far off from the Scorpion’s Klaus Meine here. I’ll be damned. Oh wait, there’s the Michael Sweet Stryper Scream… Oh wait, just fucked the whole song, and now his inflection is more Stryper than Scorpions. Lost me there boys.

Heaven And Hell is next. I mean… It’s HEAVEN AND HELL for fuck’s sake! How can you butcher this? Dio, Tony, it may very well be the ultimate old school metal song. And these holier than thou jesus freaks are singing it? I was personally offended when Michael Sweet said that Stryper could have written Heaven And Hell themselves and YOU SHOULD BE OFFENDED TOO because he said that. I’m calling Bullshit! If you could have written something as epic as Heaven And Hell you’d have had a longer career than three years of semi-relevance. And the chorus of ‘ahhhhhh’ during the breakdown????? This isn’t church camp, this is Black Sabbath motherfuckers. How do you remove the balls from one of the most badass songs of all time? HERECY!!!!!!

UFO’s Light Out. Skip it. I can’t deal anymore. Again, I’ll say FOR THE MOST PART, the music isn’t bad. But fuck his voice is so unique, and so pussified that it has no balls to it. And every chance he has to pull this off, he just completely fucks it up. Maybe this should be an instrumental cover album!!!! Yeah, then it would only suck half as bad. Hell, I’d probably rate it a solid 5 then.

The weak ass drum intro into Carry On. What the fuck is that? There’s no balls in the drums either? WTF?????? Skip.

Everyone has their breaking point when it comes to savagely raping the legacy of metal. Stryper covering Deep Purple’s Highway Star is it for me. And we haven’t even gotten to Judas Priest or Iron Maiden yet. Fuck you Stryper for even THINKING about doing this album. Skip.

I don’t think I can continue. Really… My blood pressure can’t take this; my ears can’t handle the blasphemy coming from the speakers, my co-workers are yelling at me to stop killing the litter of cats in my cubicle already. Must. Finish. Worst. Album. Ever.

Shout It Out Loud. Starts out as pussy as the original does. Does that make it bad? No, but at least they can’t fuck up such simpleton songwriting as KISS. If this was maybe the second or third song on the disc, I could probably have handled it, but as we are on the seventh song of this musical abortion, I can’t take anymore, I am up to my limit in shit, so…. Moving on…..

Over The Mountain. Holy Fuck Randy Rhoads just died again. I can’t play guitar that well and I can play the opening riff better than Oz Foxx. Skip.

The Trooper. Stupid fucks, if you are going to take songs like Over The Mountain (Randy Rhoads), Highway Star (Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord), The Trooper (Steve Harris), that have such a distinct musical sound and style, you best be able to reproduce the opening riff, the organ solo, the bass line (respectively) of those songs, or fuck off and JUST DON’T DO THEM. And never mind the shit fucked guitar solo in The Trooper, come up with your own (not). Skip.

Nobody should cover Judas Priest. Period. Skip

Van Halen. Really? You try to tackle the intricacies of Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, AND Eddie Van Halen? Who do you think you are, Oz Foxx? Oh, wait… skip.

Do I even have to say anything about Stryper trying to cover Led Zeppelin? Really? Are you going to make me listen to this? FUCK YOU. and fuck Stryper.

And no, I’m not going to listen to their new song called ‘God’. Fuck that. You don’t get to do that to me after aurally sodomizing me for the last 30 minutes.

So, we got the album up to 4 out of 10 before Michael sang, so now where are we? Someone owes me for my therapy bills now!
DO NOT PICK THIS UP, you’ll thank me later.

From Gibson.com:

One of the great hard rock bands of the late ’70s/early ’80s, RAINBOW evolved over the course of its initial run (1975-1984) from a heavy sword-and-sorcery sound (helmed by RONNIE JAMES DIO) to a lighter, more commercial enterprise attuned to early ’80s FM playlists (with the Lou Gramm-esque JOE LYNN TURNER on vocals). Somewhere in between was an album called Down To Earth, which managed to dial up much of the hard rock fury of the Dio years, but with the dead-on pop sensibilities of the band’s later albums.

For Down To Earth, bandleader and axe-man extraordinaire RITCHIE BLACKMORE tapped GRAHAM BONNET to take the mic. With Bonnet’s stentorian vox, Blackmore’s fiery fretwork, monster drummer Cozy Powell, veteran keyboardist Don Airey and Ritchie’s old DEEP PURPLE mate Roger Glover on bass (and co-producer), the group created some of the best tracks in Rainbow’s long and winding history, including the singles ‘All Night Long‘ and the Russ Ballard-penned ‘Since You’ve Been Gone‘.

Now Universal Music has announced a deluxe expanded version of Down To Earth, with non-album B-sides ‘Bad Girl‘ and the atmospheric instrumental ‘Weiss Heim‘, as well as a second disc of studio outtakes and alternate versions, which lend much-appreciated context to the finished album.

It has also been reported that Universal will soon announce a release date for a similar deluxe edition for the album many consider to be the band’s masterpiece, Rainbow Rising.

Down To Earth: Deluxe Expanded Edition tracklisting:
Disc 1:
All Night Long
Eyes Of The World
No Time To Lose
Makin’ Love
Since You Been Gone
Love’s No Friend
Danger Zone
Lost In Hollywood
Bonus Tracks:
Bad Girl (7′ Single B-Side)
Weiss Heim (7′ Single B-Side)

Disc 2:
All Night Long (Instrumental Outtake)
Eyes Of The World (Instrumental Outtake)
Spark Don’t Mean A Fire
Makin’ Love (Instrumental Outtake)
Since You Been Gone (Instrumental Outtake)
Ain’t A Lot Of Love In The Heart Of Me
Danger Zone (Instrumental Outtake)
Lost In Hollywood (Instrumental Outtake)
Bad Girls (Instrumental Outtake)
Ain’t A Lot Of Love In The Heart Of Me (Alternative Outtake – Take 2 with mixed down vocal)
Eyes Of The World (Instrumental Outtake Take 2)
All Night Long (Cozy Powell Mix)








For more RAINBOW click here.
For more DIO era RAINBOW click here.